Existing multimedia resource distribution (such as, video on demand, audio on demand, and picture sharing) usually use multi-level cache mechanisms, such as a content delivery network (CDN), and peer to server & peer (P2SP). A terminal may download data from a cache node, thereby accelerating the data downloading speed.
In order to achieve best user experience, content providers often compress multimedia resource so that the downloading is faster. However, users usually have very different network qualities and downloading bandwidth. The existing multimedia resource distribution mechanisms cannot compress multimedia resources according to actual network conditions of users. As a result, either users with high network quality receive resource with mediocre quality or users with low network quality cannot smoothly download what they need. Therefore, it is desirable to have a method that enables users to automatically download resources with sizes fitting their network qualities.